July 3, 2006

Interest is also raised in the power of the extra sensory dimension to enhance our general human computer interaction, e.g. in searching digital photos without a need to open them. If pictures paint a thousand words, how many do smells paint?

June 23, 2006

It's been 17 years since Tim Berners-Lee first dreamt up the World Wide Web as a "universal medium, open to all" for sharing information and working together. During this time, its success has been phenomenal and it now pervades into almost every aspect of our lives.

As pressures start to mount though, challenges to core founding principles, is it time to consider a scenario where the existing Internet is cast aside, and a new network takes it place?

Those pressures are:

The refusal of the US government to enshrine the princple of "net neutrality" in law

Political control and intervention in the content and running of the Internet

"Net neutrality" is the principle by which anybody, no matter how big or small, has equal access to the Internet. Where each packet of information is treated the same, processed in the same way and delivered at the same speed, i.e. it's about providing a level playing field for everybody's content. Recently, this principle has come under threat from the Telcos (companies like AT&T) who own the wires along which our Internet packets travel. They want the right to be able to charge for better quality / higher speed transfer of packets, i.e. the right to bring in a tiered system where those content providers who can afford to pay will be able to deliver the best web content at the fastest speeds.

Political intervention includes censorship of content (and prosecution of authors) in countries such as China (assisted by the likes of Yahoo and Google), and US government interference in domain naming, montioring of information, and control of routing.

If we are priced out of delivering competitive content on the Internet, or if our content and access was to become more restricted and politically controlled, perhaps in an increasingly nationalistic and defensive world, would we be prepared to cast the Internet aside in favour of an alternative open platform more akin to the founding principles?

June 23, 2006

I came across this article, the future of advertising, on Shaping Tomorrow when searching for advertising futures. the intriguing thing is the undermining of generalised brand advertising. This year internet advertising revenues will exceed traditional media, however it will be far more targeted and expected to be more cost effective.

It would be nice to see projections (taking into account contention) for the speed of connection that will be required by households to adequately receive the services that are expected to come over the next 5 years.